Nominations open for five Top 50 2024 special awards

Recipients of these awards – recognising customer service, community engagement, sustainability, back-office support, as well as overall contribution to retail – will be revealed as part of the Top 50 ceremony on April 25 at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester.

The Intrepid Sustainable Travel Champion of the Year Award, first awarded in 2023, returns this year and is open to individual agents, as well as to agency teams, who have worked hard in the last 12 months to learn about and promote sustainable travel to their customers, and/or to take steps to run their own business more sustainably. That might include doing training to educate yourself on sustainable travel, promoting sustainable travel in your marketing, and proactively recommending certain suppliers over others because of their sustainability credentials. Sustainability is a journey and we don’t expect any agency to feel that they are a true expert in this area – we’re simply looking for agents/agencies who are doing their best, and passionate about making a difference.

The Avis We Try Harder Customer Service Award will recognise an individual agent who has gone to extraordinary lengths for one particular client in the last year. If you or a colleague has gone well above and beyond to look after a customer in difficulty, a client with complex requirements, or to make an experience extra-special for your customer, please tell us all about it!

The Tui Community Hero Award is open to individual agents, as well as to agencies/agency teams, who have worked hard in the last 12 months to give back to the local community either here in the UK or in overseas destinations to which we travel. That might include raising money, volunteering, successful partnerships, and giving opportunities to those that need them most.

The VisitMalta Unsung Hero Award recognises team members who are not in a customer-facing role, but whose energy, diligence and positivity light up the day and play an important part in a travel agency’s team spirit and success. If one of your colleagues brightens the lives of everyone in your team, store or office, then we want to hear about them. Nominees might be in back-office roles such as admin, marketing or accounts and could work in head office for an agency group/consortium as well as in a high street branch or office-based agency. We’ll need you to explain how they go above and beyond to support their teammates and the business, and how they bring a positive attitude to work each day.

For all four of the above categories, submissions should relate to the period 1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023. A judging panel will decide a shortlist and the winner, and five shortlisted agents/agency representatives will be invited to attend the Top 50 ceremony on 25 April, with a complimentary ticket to join our category sponsor’s table specifically.

The Contribution to Travel Award, sponsored by Iberostar, will recognise a unique individual who has made a stand-out contribution to the retail sector in the UK or Irish travel markets, particularly during the last 12 months. Previous recipients have included Jacqueline Dobson, president of Barrhead Travel Group, Phil Nuttall, CEO of The Travel Village Group and Sandra McAllister, director of Althams Travel. TTG’s senior editorial team will make their own recommendations, but nominations are also welcome.

For more information and to nominate in any of these categories, visit ttgtop50.com and the submission deadline for all five categories is midnight on Friday 16 February 2024.

If you have any questions regarding any of the awards, please email TTG content producer Tom Parry via tparry@ttgmedia.com.